A reporter with the Associated Press says he intended no disrespect with the way he transcribed a speech delivered by President Barack Obama at the Congressional Black Caucus dinner Saturday.

The transcription of the speech by AP reporter Mark Smith was called racist by a contributor to the MSNBC show "Up with Chris Hayes."

At issue was a decision by the reporter to transcribe the speech as Obama delivered it, dropping the letter "G" from some words as the President attempted to fire up his political base to support his jobs bill.

Here is how the AP reported one of President Obama's quotes: "Take off your bedroom slippers. Put on your marching shoes," he said, his voice rising as applause and cheers mounted. "Shake it off. Stop complainin'. Stop grumblin'. Stop cryin'. We are going to press on. We have work to do."

Mediaite reports that MSNBC contributor Karen Hunter felt the decision by AP not to clean up the dialect was "inherently racist." She conceded the president "knew who his audience was" but added the wire service's decision was unacceptable. "I teach a journalism class, and I tell my students to fix people’s grammar, because you don’t want them to sound ignorant. For them to do that, its code, and I don’t like it.”

But the reporter defended his decision. "Normally, I lean toward the clean-it-up school of quote transcribing – for everyone," Smith told Mediaite. "But in this case, the President appeared to be making such a point of dropping Gs, and doing so in a rhythmic fashion, that for me to insert them would run clearly counter to his meaning. I believe I was respecting his intent in this. Certainly disrespect was the last thing I intended."

The AP Stylebook counsels against spellings like "gonna" or wanna" to convey regional dialects, says Tom Kent, an AP deputy managing editor. "Except to help a desired touch or to convey an emphasis by the speaker,'" Kent said in a statement to The Cutline. "In this case, our reporter, who was there in person, felt the spellings were appropriate to convey a particular touch that President Obama appeared to be intentionally making use of."

What do you think of how the reporter handled President Obama's quotes?